Wolves have been linked with a move for Sami Khedira and may have to battle West Ham United for his signature. Given the German international turns 33 on Saturday and has struggled with injuries in recent years, it remains to be seen whether he’s worth the gamble.
Nuno Espirito Santo already has Ruben Neves, Joao Moutinho, Leander Dendoncker, Romain Saiss, Bruno Jordao, Morgan Gibbs-White and Enzo Loiodice, so he’s not desperate to bring in another midfielder. But if Wolves are genuinely interested in Khedira, how much would he cost?
Transfermarkt valued the 32-year-old at £6.3m in December 2019. CIES Football Observatory valued him at €4m-€7m (£3.4m-£6.1m) in March 2020. Juventus signed him on a free transfer from Real Madrid in 2015, so the profit they’d make would go some way to covering his €6m-a-year/€115k-per-week wages (£5.26m/£101k-per-week), as per Gazzetta dello Sport via The Turin Crowd.
Khedira would be Wolves’ highest earner if he joined the club, but his injury woes and paltry amount of appearances suggest it wouldn’t be value for money.
In 2015/16, the German tore his muscle fibre, suffered a thigh injury, tore his adductor muscle and damaged his calf. As per Transfermarkt, he had fitness issues, suffered a knock and had a thigh injury in 2016/17. In 2017/18, he suffered a knee injury. In 2018/19, he had a muscle injury, ankle injury, knee injury, heart problem and then had knee surgery.
This season, Khedira had knee surgery in November and didn’t return for three months. It would be significant to see a World Cup winner arrive at Molineux, but it seems he’s not worth the outlay due to his injury woes and advancing age.
